Sex and Drugs: Will This Love Ever Die?
A European study published last week in the journal BMC Public Health reveals that a third of 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females surveyed are drinking alcohol to increase their chances of sex, while cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are intentionally used to enhance sexual arousal or prolong sex. From a release about the study:
Overall, alcohol was most likely to be used to facilitate a sexual encounter, while cocaine and cannabis were more likely to be utilised to enhance sexual sensations and arousal.
Despite these perceived sexual “benefits”, drunkenness and drug use were strongly associated with an increase in risk taking behaviour and feeling regretful about having sex while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Thus, participants who had been drunk in the past four weeks were more likely to have had five or more partners, sex without a condom and to have regretted sex after drink or drugs in the past 12 months. Cannabis, cocaine or ecstasy use was linked to similar consequences.
So this is probably not news to anyone. I talk to thousands of people each year about their sex lives and most people say that they drank prior to most of their early sexual experiences, and many continue to do. The point the authors of the study want to make is not just that this happens, but that to address it public health initiatives must integrate information about sex and drugs in their work.
I would add to this that any truly comprehensive approach to this problem has to try and address the why question. Why are we all getting drunk and stoned just to make a connection and have sex? We know that too much alcohol or drugs actually makes the sex worse (and sometimes impossible to perform). And as this study clearly demonstrates it often leads to sex we later regret.
Is it that we don’t think we can ask for sex unless we’re high? Is it that we don’t feel were worthy of sexual pleasure and the drugs temporarily allow us to forget that? Is it that we’re all so tied up in knots about sex that recreational drugs don’t just offer social lubrication, but loosen the knots enough so we can actually connect with what we want and how we feel?
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another reason is that alcohol (i’m not familiar with coke or mary jane) is an excuse for when sex goes bad. ironically, it probably will. being drunk has been an excuse for millennium for poor performance and lack of confidence. sadly, societies buys it.